In "The Joys of Yiddish", Leo Rosten described how he had puzzled over the
origin of the name of "Pisha Paysha", until he had opened up a book on card
games published in England, and at random came to the page describing a
game called "Pitch and Patience" (sometimes called "Peace and Patience").
It doesn't seem to bear much relationship to the hand game described by
Carole (though it does tally with Rosten's description), but it seems to
limit the likelihood that it was actually known in Eastern Europe.

Shaul Ceder
Jerusalem, Israel